


Fixing of a Different Kind

by aobox



Category: DRAMAtical Murder
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Robot/Human Relationships, robot weens, this is old as heck
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-26
Updated: 2014-10-25
Packaged: 2018-02-22 14:23:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2510882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aobox/pseuds/aobox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after Clear's good end, during the time Aoba spends locked up in his room trying to fix Clear. Noiz is concerned for his health, and in trying to help the guy out of his dark stuffy room, he finds a horribly broken robot. And after dead-setting himself on the goal of fixing Clear, he goes to work. Many months and sleepless nights later, Clear is back up and running. Aoba's happy, of course he is, but maybe not as happy as Clear thought he would be. Turns out the robot boy fell too hard, and now Noiz is stuck with a clingy heartbroken android on his hands. But things turn out okay in the end, and a disillusioned robot learns the difference between loving someone, and loving the attention someone gives you. And most importantly, what it feels like to be loved back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Secrets

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote most of this months ago, and i'm just getting around to posting it. i kinda wish i had done it before during the whole dmmd craze, but this is what procrastination gets you. enjoy guys who are as late as i am

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oval Tower fell, humanity continues to be un-enslaved, and everything turned out to be alright. Not really. Noiz hasn't seen Aoba since before the whole "saving the world" thing, and he takes it upon himself to find out what's going on.

Something's up with Aoba.

What it is though, is unknown to Noiz. He could guess, but it'd probably only earn him a kick in the ass if he mentions anything to Aoba's face. Drugs. Alcohol. Sly Blue. Hasn't jerked off in a while. All of the above. Noiz is partially kidding about that last one, hell, all of them, but there's definitely something going on. After the fall of Oval Tower, he didn't hear much of Aoba at all. Tae-san had called to tell him that Aoba was fine, and made it back safely. Koujaku even mentioned having a get-together and celebrating our “victory” as he called it, that one drunken night in a fit of happiness. But the day after, when Noiz went over to Heibon simply to annoy Aoba, and definitely not to see him safe with his own eyes, he wasn't there.

They had a rough time over there and Aoba's having a much deserved rest, alright, Noiz thought. But the next day the blue-haired idiot wasn't there either. Or the next. Turns out the old guy who runs the shop had been watching him for the last three days. Haga-san, Noiz thinks his name is. And as a “friend” of Aoba's who was “looking” for him, was told that he had took an extended leave. Now this was interesting news to Noiz, and curiosity got the better of him. Time for a house call.

After lunch, the intervention was underway. Which included Noiz walking to Aoba's house, knocking on the door, getting no answer, and breaking in. Tae-san would be at work at this time of day, and Noiz didn't feel like waiting until Aoba woke up from his beauty sleep to be let in. But what Noiz finds when he reaches the top of the stairs and opens the door to Aoba's room, isn't beautiful in the slightest.

A tired looking Aoba sits on the floor, slumped over his computer to where his dull eyes are glued. His hair is a mess, even moreso than usual, and his fingers skitter over the keys in a way that reads “obsessive”. It looks as if Noiz were to walk over and poke him, Aoba would fall over in the exact same position and not have the strength to move. But all was visible in only about a half a second, because upon entering the dim room, Aoba immediately jumped and closed all his browser windows, head snapping to said intruder.

“What's up?” Noiz asks nonchalantly, leaning against the doorframe in an act to calm the skittish boy down, trying to tell him he won't come any closer. Mostly because he doesn't need to get in a fight right now, and Aoba looks highly unpredictable at the moment.

After a few seconds the fear dims from Aoba's eyes, and he seems to be getting a better grip of reality. Noiz is here. Door was locked. Noiz broke in. Aoba did not hear Noiz. Noiz is okay. It's painfully obvious reading Aoba, but Noiz gives him all the time he needs.

“Nothing's up, what would make you think that?” Aoba gave a hoarse laugh afterward, trying to imply that he was a little freaked, but everything is fine now. It didn't work, and his voice being so dry and crappy didn't help. Neither did the state he or his room was in, either. Noiz raised an eyebrow, but in getting no response other than a quick glance around the room, he spoke up amidst the silence.

“You've really let yourself go.” Noiz half avoided the question, stating the obvious while he bought himself time to walk forward a step and sit down next to him. Slowly though, as to not scare him off. At the same level, he could inspect him further, knowing that pushing so far as too take over Aoba's dumb computer would be too far, causing immediate resistance and possible temporary ban from household.

“I've just been busy lately, that's all.” Aoba lied, while the other studied. Down here Noiz could see much more. The bright glare of the computer screen really brought out the dark circles under his eyes, even more exemplified by the only other source of light in the room being from the tightly closed blinds. Opening the blinds would be a bad idea too, for what it looked like, Aoba's skin would burn off at the exposure. Water would be more helpful to him at the moment, and Noiz briefly debated whether that would be considered as “going out of his way” to “help” a “friend”.

Aoba tried to laugh off his nervousness, but it was a broken and unsteady excuse for a proper laugh, even a dismissive one at that. But if that's all that Noiz was going to get at the moment, that was that. No use to stay longer if no more information would be gained. Not in this instance, at least.

“See you.” Noiz stated as he stood up, turning around and closing the door behind him as he made his way down the stairs. Aoba would have nothing to say upon his leave, and if he did, he wouldn't want to. So Noiz had no problem shutting the door in his face. Aoba sat there, worn out mind taking a bit longer to process what just went on, and when he heard the front door slide shut and click locked, he finally calmed down. Or at least calmed to the point where he was before Noiz broke into his house.

A few hours later Aoba got up to pee what little pee he had in his empty bladder, and he almost tripped on the object placed in front of his door in his carelessness of not looking at his surroundings. Upon closer inspection Aoba realized it was a glass of water. Needless to say, he downed it in a second.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No thought was given to how the water got there so there was no way Noiz could be classified as “going out of his way” for that.


	2. Curiosity

After that whole ordeal, Noiz decided he would keep his distance for a while. He wasn't any less curious, just waiting until the next move had to be made. He would keep himself busy with Rhyme and selling information for money he didn't need. The same boring busywork he always did. But the day after, he received an unlikely call.

“Sup.” Noiz greeted. By the time of day, this had to be something of importance. Koujaku rarely drank this early, or needed a helping hand. And they weren't exactly friends, either. Any other calls usually had to do with Aoba.

“Yo..” Koujaku tried to give a breathy laugh, attempting to sound less worried than he really was. He wasn't too bad of an actor, but sometimes you could hear the faults in his voice. Which was good, because none of those fangirls were paying attention to anything but his face. Or his dick. “Have you noticed anything wrong with Aoba?”

Bingo. “Someone's a little late on the uptake.” he responded, knowing that pointing out that he knew more than Koujaku would piss him off. The old man was too easy, Noiz often liked a bit of a challenge. Like that Mink guy. Speaking of Mink, he really was quick to cut contact, wasn't he? Noiz never cared for him that much anyways. And that other kid too, Clear, where was he? Noiz was sure he'd still be up and bouncing around long after their Platinum Jail mission.

“Well he hasn't answered his calls ever since he came back from Platinum Jail,” he started. Yes. Defend your manly protectiveness and all knowing by admitting that you've been calling him for four days straight. Way to go. “and I just wondered if you knew anything.” Noiz could tell it was hard for Koujaku to resort to this, but he gave him credit, and sure, he'll bite. He happened to be in a not so shitty mood, and the old man caught him at the right time.

“You came to the right place. Turns out, I do.” Noiz smirked, continuing for the hell of it. “Went over to his place yesterday to see what was up. Doesn't look good, man.” It didn't take long for Koujaku to overreact to that, but Noiz was having fun teasing him. Paying him back for the last time. Or for that matter, all the times Noiz could pay Koujaku back for shit he did.

“Is he okay?!” Koujaku said a little too loudly, and a little too urgently. Noiz could hear his pace speed up as if he was running. Subtle.

“Calm down old man, he's fine. A little tired, maybe. Stayed up too late on the computer, more like three days straight. He's up to something.” Koujaku had stopped pounding his stupid barely-shoes on the pavement and was trying to catch his breath. Noiz, with the opportunity, added, “You can check up on him if you need too, but don't get too involved. Keep your distance. I'm seeing what this is all about.” Noiz didn't need to add that he didn't care for people messing up his tactics, and figured Koujaku got the gist.

“Oh. Well. Thanks.” His voice was uneasy, addressing as little as he could. A little taken off guard too, normally being the one to know more of what Aoba's been up to. But he was glad he called Noiz, and so was Noiz that he did, because Koujaku was too much of a drama queen to deal with Aoba's recent problem reasonably.

“No problem.” Noiz finished, hanging up his coil. He wanted to do so before Koujaku asked why he was at Aoba's house in the first place. There was no need for the idiot to embarrass himself even more. Really.

\---

Coil call behind him, Noiz didn't hear much of Aoba for a few days. Maybe he was reading too much into it, maybe there wasn't much up at all. Aoba could be addicted on a new online game for all he knew. It was easy to figure, but something didn't seem right. Particularly the part about taking leave from work. Aoba loved that shop, helped out all the time he could, wouldn't take time off for no reason. There had to be something, right?

About a week went by before Noiz spotted a streak of blue, carrying a small bag, emerging from Junk Shop Heibon. Noiz was headed to the next Rhyme site when he saw him, messy and tired and worn out beyond belief. He picked up his pace to walk beside him on the sidewalk.

“Yo.” Noiz alerts him of his presence, apparently a little too suddenly, causing Aoba to jolt and almost drop his plastic bag. It looks like he hasn't slept for weeks, and all in all, it isn't a pretty sight.

“Oh, Noiz..” Aoba trailed off the end of his sentence unpurposely, realizing who the sudden shock was from. He was trying to act as normal as he possibly could, but even Aoba knew it wasn't working too well. He'd have to work harder to fool Noiz.

“Sup.” Noiz said simply, trying not to give the idiot too much to mentally handle right now. Aoba was trying to process his own words, Noiz didn't need him to get confused with his own, too. The thought to reach over and look inside the bag briefly crossed his mind.

“Nothin, just getting some stuff for granny, is all.” Aoba gave an innocent smile, but it didn't work on Noiz. Not this time. Not that it ever did, but that wasn't the point. The point was what Tae-san could possibly need at the junk shop, and more importantly, what Aoba was up to.

Noiz knew asking him what stuff would get the answer “just stuff”, and immediate dismissal. Taking the bag was out of the question too, no matter how much he wanted to. He could also do something completely unexpected to throw Aoba off, but Noiz is mostly sure that pushing the idiot up against the nearest wall and kissing him wouldn't accomplish much more at the moment other than further avoidance. No, at a time like this Aoba was like a lost puppy. Didn't want to scare the poor thing off, so Noiz would have to hold back on more extreme and invasive tactics for now. No matter how much he wanted to just get it over with, more information would be gained in the end by taking it slow. It was hard, and Noiz wasn't necessarily a “patient” person, but he knew waiting in this instance would be better off for everyone.

Noiz acknowledged with a small hum and figured it would be best to say “See you,” as well, before he squeezed Aoba's shoulder lightly, passing behind him and sneaking into a dingy alley. That would be all for now, and who knew how much longer Aoba could pretend to socialize. If anything Koujaku would head over in the next day or two, and might learn more information then. But for now, we wait.

\---

There were only a few more instances in the next couple weeks that Noiz saw Aoba, a handful of them being Noiz spotting the blue mess walking somewhere around town. Always carrying a bag of some sort, so it seemed that he didn't leave the house without a specific reason, at least. And that one other time that Noiz went back over to Aoba's place to check on him. It was about three weeks apart from the first time he came over, and Noiz was bothered by how long this had went on for.

Another house call did nothing. Barely any new information was gathered, and it seems this whole ordeal has really taken a toll on Aoba's mental health. He's more skittish and dismissive than usual, and that's saying something. Half the time he doesn't even hear Noiz, too busy staring off into space or frantically glancing around the room as if he was looking for a way out.

Now Noiz was worried. This wasn't good, whatever “this” was. Something was very very wrong and the next move had to be made. The thought to discuss it with Tae-san came up, but if she wasn't freaking out already, she didn't need to be. Not now. Noiz would give it a month. A full month from when he first saw him, so sometime next week. And if things haven't straightened themselves out in Aoba's head by then, Noiz would take action. Standing by and observing was of no use anymore. Not when something could be seriously wrong, and when Noiz begrudgingly called Koujaku later, they agreed on something for once.

Time for an intervention.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A real one this time, don't worry.


	3. Intervention

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oftentimes, there will be things written that seem out of place. They are Noiz's thoughts. He's narrating as he goes along, and his thoughts are often fused into the story without specifically saying “he thought”. I don't know how to write.

A week went by too slow for Noiz's taste, but Koujaku and him had already agreed on the date, so there was no going back now. Today was the day.

Noiz perched on a nearby balcony, having already easily broken into the small house next to Aoba's. He locked it up behind him regardless, not needing more attention drawn to him, for instance, yakuza eager to arrest an intruder. Jumping without fear, Noiz's shoes hit Aoba's balcony lightly, hopefully lightly enough that the idiot didn't hear him.

There was a blanket pinned to the wall inside Aoba's room, covering up the entirety of the glass sliding door to the balcony. It was obviously put there to get rid of unwanted light, and Noiz saw it last time he had came over. Which was good, because without it, Noiz would stick out like a sore thumb. Noiz crouched down in the corner just in case his shadow shone through, but it was unlikely from the time of evening it was. But in the bottom corner, he noticed a small sliver that the blanket wasn't covering. Perfect.

It was a boring hour or so waiting for the blue-haired wonder to get up and go to another room or something, but Noiz would know when he did, thanks to his sliver of visibility. A godsend this was, and Noiz didn't even believe in that crap. The plan was to sneak in when Aoba was taking a piss or something, look around and find out what was going on, and figure it out before Aoba came back. It wasn't Noiz's best plan, but he blamed it's faults on the fact that he made it with Koujaku. Speaking of Koujaku, he wasn't here. Noiz preferred to work alone, but if anything went wrong, Koujaku would be here in an instant with just one coil call. Hooray.

Annnd... there! Aoba's ass finally lifted from the ground. He stood up slowly, yawning and stretching out his cramped up limbs. With a final sip of water from a now empty glass, he made his way out the door and down the stairs. Noiz stood on his toes, ready for action.

The intervention was underway.

Once the blue had left his vision, Noiz bolted to the latch, quickly undoing it and sliding his way inside without a sound. But once he moved the blanket out of the way, he saw something he hadn't seen through his sliver. The room was messy, sure, but in front of the computer was a large hunk of metal. A particularly large hunk of metal, in fact. One that looked an awful lot like Clear.

“The fuck happened here..” Noiz mumbled out of shock, mouth slightly agape and brows furrowed. Out of all the possible outcomes he could've expected, this wasn't one of them. And it should've been too, Noiz mentally calculated to take in other people's actions next time. He knew Clear wouldn't have left without a sound, Clear being inoperable should have been on his mind. Noiz mentally cursed for letting that slip by.

Noiz crouched down to inspect the horribly broken robot further. There were tools scattered around it, okay, him, and various wires and metal pieces as well. It looked at the moment like Aoba was trying to repair the arm with most of the skin torn off. Skin had flaked off from half of his face too, revealing dull, lifeless eyes Noiz had never seen before. It was a shame the whole “face” mystery had to be solved by this.

Noiz dragged his finger lightly along the left side of the robot's neck, his own left, feeling around in the deep wound. What the hell happened in Platinum Jail? And why has Aoba been hiding Clear in his room for a month? Well that answer was easy, he was trying to fix the poor guy himself. For whatever reason, Aoba thought it was entirely his own problem to fix Clear. Which was ridiculous, because even Noiz knew that Aoba wasn't able to fix this kind of complicated machinery. And Noiz just offhandedly knew it was complicated, but up close, it became so much more real how intricate and high tech this was. Definitely nothing he had ever dealt with.

Footsteps made themselves up the stairs, but Noiz wasn't backing out now. He continues inspecting, trying to figure out where a certain wire connects to. Noiz impacts himself from the coming blow.

“What are you doing here?!” Aoba shouts in shock, almost dropping his glass of water. Noiz can tell Aoba didn't exactly expect him to be in his room when he came back. The plan didn't call for this, but whatever, fuck the plan. It was crappy thanks to Koujaku anyways. Noiz stands up slowly, taking a step toward the shocked streak of blue still standing in the doorway.

“Don't drop it.” he says quietly, but loud enough, taking the glass of water from Aoba's shaking hands. With his own steady ones, he sets the glass down on a nearby table that Aoba's computer used to sit on. Noiz didn't need to be dragged into cleaning the floor up as well. Not that he cared about that, right now.

“I said, what. Are. You. Doing. Here.” Aoba was pissed, and it wasn't hard to tell. But he was doing a wonderful job of holding in his anger, Noiz would give him credit for that. Or maybe it was a warped way of feeling emotion because of loss of sleep. Or loss of mental stability. Noiz wasn't sure.

“Obviously checking in on you, freakshow.” Noiz's voice was emotionless enough to remain undramatic, and he continued with, “Good thing too, looks like you're hoarding broken robot boyfriends in your room.” Noiz had backed off a step after setting the glass of water down, just in case Aoba felt like hitting him.

“This is none of your business, Noiz!” Aoba was making large hand movements, and Noiz swore he was a teenage girl for a minute there. The thought that a tired and stressed out Aoba could result in an excited Sly Blue, sent a flicker of light through Noiz's eyes. But the probability against that was high. Oh well, maybe next time.

“Doesn't really seem like it's your business, either.” Noiz provoked, wondering how much longer Aoba would keep this up. It would die down when the shock did, for sure. Aoba wasn't one to just get irrationally mad at things, and this emotion here felt off. Like it wasn't right, in a way, but that was also most likely due to sleep deprivation.

“Get out, now!” Aoba continued to yell, but still hadn't moved out of the doorway. Probably because that would mean moving closer to Noiz, but whatever. How was he supposed to leave if he was blocking the way? This was getting boring, fast.

“Probably fucked him to death, too.” The thought came out with no emotion behind it, Noiz not understanding the meaning of a “filter” that much. What was the point of filtering your thoughts from others? Not that Noiz had an issue with Aoba's sexual tendencies, if that's what made the kid happy, right?

“What?!” Aoba's voice cracked just the slightest bit at the end of the explanation, and his cheeked flamed with the accusation. Or maybe it was out of lust, Noiz never knew. That was a joke, by the way. It was probably out of embarrassment because Noiz just accused Aoba of fucking a robot to death, a boy robot at that, and as we all know, Aoba isn't gay.

“You're right, other way around.” After thinking about it for a minute, Noiz corrected himself. He wasn't even being rude at this point. It's true. The blue-haired bottom, that's what he was. Oh crap, looks like he's going in for a hit.

Noiz easily grabbed Aoba's fist before it hit him in the neck, staring him dead in the eye. He was weak from a month of sleep deprivation and mental instability. Even if he wasn't though, holding Aoba back wasn't hard. But he seemed out of it already, his amber eyes flickering to Clear. Something snapped in him, and that was it. His fist left Noiz's hand slowly as he fell, fell down onto the carpet to his knees. Aoba's head was down, buried into the lower part of Noiz's legs.

“Hey..” Noiz mumbled to him, suddenly at a loss for what was going on. Aoba wasn't okay right now, not in the least. He didn't know when Aoba's grandmother would be home, but they could both handle the time until then, right? If not, there was always Koujaku, but Noiz didn't really need him running in here right now.

“Please help me..” a weak voice from below responded. Now that Noiz thought about it, Clear had been here for a month. An entire fucking month Aoba has been locked up in his room, trying everything he fucking could to fix up a robot broken practically beyond repair. Of course he wasn't stable, who knew what happened in Platinum Jail? The looks of it said that Aoba got attached to the damn thing, too attached.

“Hey...” Noiz repeated, softer this time. He gradually lowered himself to the ground, as to not shock Aoba. The blue-haired mess wrapped his arms around Noiz, burying his head in his neck, and Noiz let him. Aoba had been through enough in the past month, if he wanted to sit with Noiz on his floor and cry that was fine with him. Noiz made a mental note to bring this part up with Koujaku, though.

“I couldn't fix him myself...” It sounded like Aoba was forcing out those words, the truth that he never wanted to admit. That was it, Aoba was so attached that he had to fix Clear himself. No wonder he didn't let anyone know, for whatever reason he felt guilty about it, and had to do this alone. Aoba hated himself for inability to fix Clear, and Noiz could only guess how much he broke instead of fixed. In both the robot, and himself.

“Shh.. It's alright...” Noiz murmured into his hair, wrapping his arms around to play with the very lightest of the blue hairs at his back. He knew this wouldn't hurt him after all, the nerves being mostly up towards the scalp. Noiz wasn't used to this sort of thing, having to comfort someone, and his sudden empathy surprised even him. Maybe because he was treating Aoba how he wished someone would treat him when he was a little kid, back when he would cry for days and days with all the lights off so he wouldn't even know what time it was. The sudden remembrance of that time hit him like a rock, and he gripped Aoba just a little tighter.

“No it's not... I failed...” Aoba's voice was choked with the emotion that he had held back for an entire month, tears smearing against the crook of Noiz's neck. Noiz didn't care though, and he pressed Aoba even deeper into him. He wanted to fix things, he wanted Clear alive again, and he wanted Aoba to be okay again. Not crying on the ground because he didn't know how to fix the most complicated robot ever built. Noiz spoke without thinking, a habit he tended to have.

“I'll fix him. I'll fix Clear.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay so aobob and clear didn't frick alright no sex with the dying robox was done just deal


End file.
